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Mastering Basics
What is Mastering?
"Mastering" is the process of collecting and
preparing your completed music mixes for
their final playback medium, a "master" CD.
The V-Studio mastering procedure can include
the following steps:
•
importing—your mixes into a single mastering project.
•
editing—the start and end points of each mix to remove
any extraneous noises.
•
sweetening—the sound of your mixes as needed by
processing them with the Mastering Tool Kit, capturing
the results as CD-compatible disk images.
•
assembling—the disk images into the order you want
them to play on the CD.
•
placing—CD track markers that tell a CD player how to find
your songs.
•
burning an audio CD—so that you can play your music on
any audio CD player. This disk can also be used as a master
for mass-duplication.
A Roland V-Studio equipped with a VS-compatible CD recorder
and a VS8F-3 or VS8F-2 effects board allow you to accomplish
all of these processes.
For detailed information about track editing, creating disk images, and
burning audio CDs, see the owner's manual for your particular V-Studio.
What Are the Advantages of Mastering?
You might be asking yourself, "Why do I need to master my
recordings? Can't I just burn my mixes to an audio CD and be
done with it?"
Well, you certainly can, and the V-Studio's "Track at Once" CD
burning option makes burning songs one at a time extremely
easy. And if you're just sharing song demos, you probably
don't need to go to the trouble of mastering.
However, when you're ready to compile a group of recordings
for a final CD release, mastering has some important benefits:
•
It allows you to create a good song-to-song balance on
the CD—Recordings mixed at different times can sound
quite different from each other. By subtly adjusting the
equalization, dynamics, and level of each mix, you can
make them all "live together" better on the final CD.
•
You can enhance your mixes—By "polishing" the overall
sound with digital processing, you can often improve the
aural presentation of your songs. (Mastering can't always
solve problems with poor mixes, however. Great masters
always start with great mixes.)
•
It provides a fresh perspective on your music—The process
of recording and mixing a song is very detail-oriented.
Mastering, on the other hand, is a subtler approach,
one that's more concerned with the presentation of a
collection of songs.
•
It helps you compete with commercial CDs—100% of all
commercially released recordings are mastered to some
degree. Good mastering can help your music stand side-
by-side with other recordings in areas of impact, presence,
and punch. One particular benefit is in increasing the
average level of the music by using an effect called
"limiting. "
Ultimately, though, the goal of mastering is quite simple: To
create a CD that sounds great on any system it's played on, be
it a home stereo, boom-box, car stereo, or the radio.
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